The city of Akhetaten was build by Pharaoh Akhenaten after he rejected the god Amun and chose the god Aten. After Akheneten died, King Tut issued the capital to be moved back to Thebes and the city was abandoned. Akhetaten met it’s collapse because of the lack of leadership that supported the religious aspects of that city.

Copan ‘collapsed’ due to the Mayan people abandoning it. Although the city of Copan lasted a few hundred of years, the people did not know how to maintain sustainable growth. The various rulers/kings of Copan didn’t have the knowledge to educate the people about wise usage of land for agriculture and animals. Therefore, when the population continued to grow, there were not enough supplies(food and buildings) to satisfy the needs of everyone. Eventually, bit by bit, the Maya began to evacuate Copan, leaving all their construction and artwork behind.

There are many mechanisms for collapse that have destroyed the various Lost Cities we have been studying in class. These methods vary widely, and include resource depletion, warfare, being conquered by outsiders, abandonment, etc. My lost city, Troy, was destroyed by warfare.

Tiwanaku’s stability was based on its large food production network, so when a major and lengthy drought hit western South America and food production was almost entirely knocked out, the system began to fail.

Mycenae was lost and destroyed by internal dispute or a foreign invasion of banned people. This great Greek civilization was dominated by an intense rebellion of its people against its reigning kings. It also is said to maybe have been conquered by the Dorians who were banned foreigners who came to the Greek mainland and overran the Greeks. Dictatorship was a big part in the collapse, along with over secureness, the feeling that no enemy had any chance of overtaking them. Both are categories that played a part in the fall of Mycenae.

Some of the major mechanisms that led to the collapse of the cities we consider are resource depletion, catastrophes, invaders, other complex societies and many more. Im my particular case, Pompeii, was was the victim of a catastrophe. A volcano called Mt. Vesuvius, engulfed the city-town in lava destroying it completely.

Collapse occurs when resources run out, government fails, and when a civilization including traditions and social order is taken over. Tenochtitlan fell due to the Spain’s colonization of the New World. The Aztec’s did not have the weaponry or the skill to fight against Spain’s horses and canons. Also, disease killed many inhabitants of the Aztec empire making the collapse of Tenochtitlan imminent.

Mechanism of collapse are: resource depletion, natural disaster, political unrest, social unrest, infiltration of other societies, inability of society to support growing societies. Knossos was abandoned with possible reasons being a series of natural disasters that altered climate, affected trade with other important ports, and destroyed coastal towns. All of this combined with the infiltration of the Myceanaes is believed to have led to the abandonment of the city.

The mechanism of collapse in the Lost City of Chichén Itzá is not sure or accurate. The Mayans abandoned the city into the jungle. Some archeologist say that it could of been because of whether and some state it was for seek of greater power and territory.

The city of Ur falls under two categories for collapse. Ur fell first to siege by the Elamites. This would fall under the category of intruders. The second collapse Ur went through was permanent. The change in flow of the Euphrates river caused Ur to be abandoned. This would fall under the category of depletion of essential resources.

Teotihuacan was a city that housed multiple cultural groups at a time, and whenever conflicts arose, certain groups would come and go. Teotihuacan was a religion based society and if your religion disagreed with the majority, it only made sense to leave. “Collapse” never actually arose at the city, it was merely abandoned.

A major mechanism of collapse is the agricultural resources and lack of adaptation. Many of the Lost Cities we have read about so far have suffered due to either the quality of the land for farming or the inability to adjust to climate changes. There are many different theories regarding the collapse of Great Zimbabwe. While they are controversial, the two main reasonings are famine and abandonment. The over population of this thriving city could have potentially led to a slack in the productivity of resources thus causing famine. The next step from this is people saw this occurring and left. The abandonment alone was said to have been done in order to expand the gold mining empire they were initiating in and could not expand on their land. The research is still occuring but major evidence leads to famine and/or abandonment.

Ostia had several major factors that contributed to its collapse. It was a port city and was attacked several times by pirates. Also towards the end of its time there were a series of earthquakes that severely damaged the city. Lastly it was abandoned due to the decline of the Roman economy that could no longer support it.

Of the eleven major themes of the explantation collapse proposed by Joseph Tainter it seems that the majority of these Lost Cities fall under Resource Depletion, Insufficient response to circumstances, Conflicts, contradictions & mismanagement, and Economic Explanations. Tulum was said to be “simply abandoned” after the arrival of Spanish Conquistadors. This abandonment correlates to the Mayan’s resource depletion and insufficient response to circumstances.